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The Month in Pictures: June 2016

Palestinians break their fast on the first day of Ramadan in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City on 6 June.

Ahmed Salama

Five Israelis and four Palestinians were slain during the month of June, and another Palestinian died of injuries sustained a month earlier.

On 8 June, Muhammad Ahmad Mukhamara and Khaled Muhammad Mukhamara, Palestinian cousins from Yatta, a town near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, opened fire in an upscale Tel Aviv square, killing four Israelis before they were wounded and apprehended.

Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, died from her injuries after she was stabbed more than a dozen times by a Palestinian attacker as she slept in her home in the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank on 30 June.

The attacker, 19-year-old Muhammad Tarayra from Bani Naim village near Hebron, was shot dead at the scene.

Women killed

A week earlier, Majd al-Khudour, an 18-year-old woman from Bani Naim, was shot dead after she ran her car into a bus stop outside Kiryat Arba, injuring two Israelis.

Another woman, Ansar Hussam Harasha, a 25-year-old married mother of two, was shot dead at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank on 2 June. The Israeli army claimed she had attempted to stab soldiers. No Israelis were injured during the incident.

The Israeli army admitted error after soldiers fired on a car carrying young Palestinians returning from a pool party, killing 15-year-old Mahmoud Badran and injuring four others. The incident followed the injury of Israelis traveling in a car that was hit by stones.

Jamal Muhammad Dweikat, 20, died on 8 June from wounds sustained days earlier, when he was shot by Israeli soldiers during confrontations at Joseph’s Tomb in the outskirts of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Man with Down syndrome dies from wounds

Another young Palestinian man, Arif Jaradat, died on 20 June of his wounds sustained more than a month earlier when he was shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers during a raid on the town of Sair near Hebron.

Jaradat, 22, had Down syndrome. He is the 14th Palestinian from Sair to be killed since the outbreak of a new phase of violence in October last year, during which more than 220 Palestinians and 30 Israelis have been killed.

Unknown gunmen killed two members of the Palestinian security forces and severely injured a Palestinian woman in Nablus on 29 June, and that same day three Palestinian men were killed during an armed confrontation between families in the village of Yabad near the West Bank town of Jenin.

Palestinians confronted Israeli forces at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in late June after the entry of Israeli settlers and other groups into the Haram al-Sharif compound. Twenty-six Palestinians, including three children, were injured during the clashes.

Movement restrictions

Palestinian males holding West Bank IDs over the age of 12 and under the age of 45 were prevented from traveling to Jerusalem to pray at al-Aqsa during Ramadan, which began in early June.

Israel canceled the permits for 73,000 Palestinians in the West Bank to travel to Jerusalem and Israel during Ramadan following the shooting deaths in Tel Aviv.

The Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing – the sole point of entry and exit for the vast majority of the 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza – was exceptionally opened for four days during the first week of the month, allowing more than 3,100 Palestinians to exit and nearly 900 to enter Gaza, according to the United Nations monitoring group OCHA.

“There are over 30,000 people, including around 9,500 medical cases and 2,700 students, who are registered and waiting to cross, according to Palestinian authorities,” OCHA stated in June. The crossing has been closed with only rare exception since late October 2014.

Refugees killed in Syria strikes

Several residents of Khan Eshieh near Damascus were killed in strikes on the Palestinian refugee camp throughout the month. Five residents, including a 5-year-old boy, were reported to have been killed in Russian airstrikes on the camp at the close of the month.

Fighting between Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups in the area of Khan Eshieh has escalated since April. Three Palestinians were killed as they were returning home from evening prayers at a mosque on Khan Eshieh’s main road on 14 June.

Five Palestinian refugees, two of them children, were among 14 civilians killed in an explosion at the entrance of Qabr Essit camp in Sayyida Zeinab near the Syrian capital on 11 June, according to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees.

Fourteen additional Palestinian refugees ranging from 10 months to 60 years in age were among the more than 100 wounded, UNRWA stated.

“During the first week of June, two Palestine refugees were killed and a third was injured in Aleppo city,” the agency added.

Two Palestinian women were slain in an attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport in late May, and a 3-year-old Palestinian child remains in a coma and a 17-year-old Palestinian girl was placed in intensive care after being injured during the attack.

Forty-one persons were killed and more than 230 were injured during the attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport.

Leftist Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar is greeted at an Israeli checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem following her release from an Israeli prison on 3 June. Jarrar was imprisoned for 14 months after she was prosecuted in an Israeli military court on charges related to advocacy for Palestinian prisoners and political activism.

Nedal EshtayahAPA images

Palestinians look on as Israelis march inside Jerusalem’s Old City on 5 June as they celebrate Jerusalem Day, an Israeli-declared holiday marking the Israeli army’s seizure of the Palestinian-dominated eastern half of Jerusalem in 1967, beginning a military occupation that lasts until this day.

Oren ZivActiveStills

Palestinians shop at a Gaza City market on 6 June, the first day of Ramadan.

Mohammed AsadAPA images

A Palestinian worker decorates the terrace of a beachside cafe in Gaza City for the month of Ramadan on 9 June.

Mohammed AsadAPA images

A Palestinian man walks past posters showing Palestinians slain by Israeli forces during recent months, some of them during attacks on Israelis, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 13 June.

Shadi HatemAPA images

A banner of Bilal Kayed hangs outside his home in Asira al-Shamaliya, northern West Bank, on 14 June. Kayed was due to be released from Israeli prison the previous day after serving a nearly 15-year sentence for resisting the occupation. But instead of releasing him, Israel placed him under administrative detention without charge or trial.

Ahmad Al-BazzActiveStills

Palestinian men jump a fence between Jerusalem and the West Bank City of Bethlehem to pray at al-Aqsa mosque on 17 June, the second Friday of Ramadan. Israel prevented Palestinian males in the West Bank older than 12 and younger than 45 from entering Jerusalem during Ramadan.

Wisam HashlamounAPA images

A Palestinian youth reads a copy of the Quran written in braille at a religious school in Gaza City on 21 June during the month of Ramadan.

Mohammed AsadAPA images

Palestinians inspect the home belonging to the family of Bashar Masalha after it was demolished by the Israeli military in the West Bank city of Qalqilya on 21 June. Masalha was shot dead after he stabbed and killed a US tourist and wounded several others in the coastal city of Jaffa in present-day Israel in March. Israel has been carrying out demolition orders against homes belonging to the families of Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis.

Nedal EshtayahAPA images

The family of Mahmoud Badran, killed by Israeli forces while returning home from a pool party, mourn during the 15-year-old boy’s funeral in Beit Ur al-Tahta village near the West Bank city of Ramallah on 23 June.

Shadi HatemAPA images

A Palestinian vendor sells bread in a street market in the West Bank city of Nablus during the month of Ramadan on 23 June.

Nedal EshtayahAPA images

Palestinian women cross Qalandiya checkpoint, the main crossing point between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, as they make pilgrimage to al-Aqsa mosque for the third Friday prayer during the month of Ramadan, 24 June.

Ahmad Al-BazzActiveStills

Israeli forces gather at the scene where a Palestinian woman was shot dead after driving her car into a group of people waiting at a bus stop at the entrance to Kiryat Arba settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron on 24 June.

Wisam HashlamounAPA images

A Palestinian family waits for the sun to set on a day of fasting at the Gaza City beach on 24 June.

Mohammed AsadAPA images

Palestinians prepare to break their Ramadan fast in front of the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on 25 June.

Mahfouz Abu TurkAPA images

Palestinians read the Quran at the Sayed Hashim mosque in Gaza City during Ramadan on 27 June.

Yasser QudihAPA images

A Palestinian girl fills a container with spring water in Salfit, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 27 June. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were forced to rely to a larger extent on expensive tankered water after the Israeli water company Mekorot reduced supplies to them by 50-70 percent, according to the UN monitoring group OCHA.

Nedal EshtayahAPA images

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits a Qatari-funded rehabilitation and artificial limbs hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on 28 June. The previous day the UN chief urged Israelis and Palestinians not to allow extremists on either side to fan violence as he arrived as part of a Middle East tour.

Mohammed AsadAPA images

The parents of Hallel Yaffa Ariel mourn during their daughter’s funeral after the 13-year-old girl was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in her bedroom in the West Bank settlement Kiryat Arba on 30 June.